Geropharmacology: A Primer for Advanced Practice Acute Care and Critical Care Nurses, Part I

Advanced practice nurses’ challenge in managing older adults’ medication regimens from an evidence base is difficult because older adults are vulnerable to medication errors and adverse drug reactions related to a number of factors. Predicting patients’ responses to drugs is compounded during critical illness, adding to the heterogeneity and unpredictability of drug effects that are prevalent premorbidly. In the first part of this 2-part continuing education series, sources of medication errors and older adults’ vulnerability are discussed, including normal changes of aging affecting pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, polypharmacy, self-medicating, patient-family noncompliance, and inappropriately prescribed medications. In the second part, drug classes and drugs posing particular problems for older adults and cautions for acute care and critical care nurses who manage the medications of older adults are highlighted.